It seems the vast majority of faculty searches are for Assistant level positions with a few advertised as Asst/Asoc. I've read here and elsewhere that full Professors are usually recruited. So what are some reasons a committee would conduct an open rank search? When I was in grad school the department did an open search and it was near common knowledge that they were recruiting a particular full professor. The search happened and a fresh-from-grad-school candidate was brought in to compete with the full prof. Of course the full prof got the offer and the job.

I'm an ABD and applied for an open rank position. Three short-listed candidates were invited to on-campus interviews, including me, and all of them aren't in tenure-track job. Two out of three candidates, including me, are ABDs, while the last candidate is a VAP at another school. Given my experience, open rank searches don't necessarily mean that search committee members are exclusively interested in candidates eligible for full professor. But, it's just my opinion.

I think open rank really means open rank. A lot of the time search committees will be tempted by the most qualified (full professor) candidates, but really anyone can be hired. Often these searches are for specialty areas. If you're hiring in a small sub-field, then you should make the search open rank in order to open up the pool a bit.